Rishi Sunak facing by-election triple threat as new vote announced to replace David Warburton
Rishi Sunak is facing a by-election triple threat after the Somerton and Frome vote was scheduled for 20 July.
The announcement comes after David Warburton formally left the House of Commons on Monday.
The election will take place on the same day as Boris Johnson’s vacated Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat, and Nigel Adams’ Selby and Ainsty seat.
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There is still no answer on when Nadine Dorries will leave her Mid Bedfordshire constituency, after saying she was “standing down with immediate effect” almost two weeks ago.
Mr Warburton announced he was standing down as an MP last week, having been suspended from the Conservative Party since April 2022 while being investigated by the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS).
He had been accused of sexual harassment and drug abuse.
In his resignation letter, Mr Warburton said the “malicious allegations” and “flawed” 14-month investigation had “inflicted unimaginable and intolerable destruction on my family and on [himself]”.
Mr Warburton’s decision to quit means the Conservatives face four by-elections at a time when they are trailing behind Labour in the national polls.
David Warburton
All eyes are on Mr Johnson’s marginal west London constituency, where the Conservatives won a 53% share of the vote at the last general election in 2019.
Mr Warburton and Mr Adams are cushioned by larger majorities of 19,213 and 20,137 respectively, but Labour and the Liberal Democrats are already out campaigning to try and swing the constituencies in their favour.
The by-elections come at a difficult time for the prime minister, who is struggling to draw a line under the Boris Johnson partygate and honours row, while also facing pressure to help families with soaring mortgage rates.
Mr Warburton has admitted the government faces a “tough” contest in his seat, which was held by the Lib Dems before he entered parliament in 2015.
“It’s going to be tough for them. I mean, I’ve won three large majorities in a row, but prior to that it was a Lib Dem seat for 18 years over four elections,” he told GB News.
“It’s going to be difficult and the government is obviously facing three other by-elections … it’s a tough time for by-elections.”
Ms Dorries also has a large majority of 24,000 but she is holding off the formal process of resigning while she seeks answers from Downing Street about why she did not get her peerage.
Mr Johnson had sought to elevate the former culture secretary to the House of Lords along with Mr Adams but when the list was finally revealed, their names were absent – prompting a bitter war of words between the former prime minister and Mr Sunak.
Ms Dorries announced her intention to resign just before the list was published, with Mr Johnson following her hours later over the report from the privileges committee, and Mr Adams quit the next day.
Mr Johnson was found to have lied to MPs over the Downing Street parties scandal and was stripped of his special access to parliament after the House of Commons voted by 354 to seven to back the inquiry’s findings.
Donald Trump has threatened Russia with more sanctions after a series of deadly strikes across Ukraine, as he said of Vladimir Putin: “What the hell happened to him?”
The US president appeared aghast at the conduct of his counterpart in the Kremlin after drone and missile attacks in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities left 12 people dead and dozens more injured.
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Speaking to reporters at an airport in New Jersey ahead of a flight back to Washington, Mr Trump said: “I’m not happy with Putin. I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”
“He’s killing a lot of people,” he added. “I’m not happy about that.”
Mr Trump – who said he’s “always gotten along with” Mr Putin – told reporters he would consider more sanctions against Moscow.
“He’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all,” he said.
Ukraine said the barrage of strikes overnight into Sunday was the biggest aerial attack of the war so far, with 367 drones and missiles fired by Russian forces.
It came despite Mr Trump repeatedly talking up the chances of a peace agreement. He even spoke to Mr Putin on the phone for two hours last week.
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Hundreds of drones fired at Ukraine
‘Shameful’ attacks
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine is ready to sign a ceasefire deal, and suggested Russia isn’t serious about signing one.
In a statement after the latest attacks on his country, he urged the US and other national leaders to increase the pressure on Mr Putin, saying silence “only encourages” him.
Mr Trump’s envoy for the country, Keith Kellogg, later demanded a ceasefire, describing the Russian attacks as “shameful”.
Three children were among those killed in the attacks, explosions shaking the cities of Kyiv, Odesa, and Mykolaiv.
Ukrainian siblings Tamara, 12, Stanislav, eight, and Roman, 17, were killed in Russian airstrikes. Pic: X/@Mariana_Betsa
Before the onslaught, Russia said it had faced a Ukrainian drone attack on Sunday. It said around 100 were intercepted and destroyed near Moscow and in central and southern regions.
The violence has escalated despite Russia and Ukraine completing the exchange of 1,000 prisoners each over the past three days.
Donald Trump says he will delay the imposition of 50% tariffs on goods entering the United States from the European Union until July, as the two sides attempt to negotiate a trade deal.
It comes after the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a post on social media site X that she had spoken to Mr Trump and expressed that they needed until 9 July to “reach a good deal”.
The US president had last Friday threatened to bring in the 50% tariffs from 1 June, as European leaders said they were ready to respond with their own measures.
But Mr Trump has now said that date has been put back to 9 July to allow more time for negotiations with the 27-member bloc, with the phone call appearing to smooth over tensions for now at least.
Speaking on Sunday before boarding Air Force One for Washington DC, Mr Trump told reporters that he had spoken to Ms Von der Leyen and she “wants to get down to serious negotiations” and she vowed to “rapidly get together and see if we can work something out”.
The US president, in comments on his Truth Social platform, had reignited fears last Friday of a trade war between the two powers when he said talks were “going nowhere” and the bloc was “very difficult to deal with”.
Mr Trump told the media in Morristown, New Jersey, on Sunday that Ms Von der Leyen “just called me… and she asked for an extension in the June 1st date. And she said she wants to get down to serious negotiation”.
“We had a very nice call and I agreed to move it. I believe July 9th would be the date. That was the date she requested. She said we will rapidly get together and see if we can work something out,” the US president added.
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Shortly after, he wrote on Truth Social: “I agreed to the extension – July 9, 2025 – It was my privilege to do so.”
On his so-called “liberation day” last month, Mr Trump unleashed tariffs on many of America’s trade partners. But since then he’s backed down in a spiralling tit-for-tat tariff face-off with China, and struck a deal with the UK.
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Much of his most incendiary rhetoric on trade has been directed at Brussels, though, even going as far as to claim the EU was created to rip the US off.
Responding to his 50% tariff threat, EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said: “EU-US trade is unmatched and must be guided by mutual respect, not threats.
“We stand ready to defend our interests.”
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